OUR LONDON TRUSTEES
Rebecca Byrne
Rebecca is one of the initial founders of the Launch It Trust. She also previously volunteered as a Business Advisor and Mentor at The Prince’s Trust.
She is also member of the NY State Bar/NY City Bar, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and Chairman of the Byrne Charitable Trust.
Gabrielle Boyle
Gabrielle has worked in the financial services industry for over 30 years. She is currently an Investment Director and Head of Research at Troy Asset Management.
Gabrielle is also a Non-Executive Director of Witan Investment Trust.
Philip Howard
The Chair, Philip Howard helped to found the Launch It Trust in 2000. He worked in Investment Banking for 25 years and was a board and panel member for The Prince’s Trust.
He is currently Executive Chairman at CRUX Asset Management.
Abhay Varma
Abhay co-founded Tarchon Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar fund hedge fund, serving initially as COO and then as Portfolio Manager (1998-2013). Since 2013, he has founded and served as Managing Partner of Vahnea Marolda Investments, a property business focusing on student, elderly and commercial properties.
Abhay is married with three children and loves playing tennis. He also volunteers at his local hospital and also serves as a Founder and Trustee of St. Clare's Foundation.
Joanna Rowelle
Joanna is a Director at Arup where she runs the City Economics practice. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and a member of the Institute of Economic Development.
Leone McKinley
Leone is an experienced corporate banker BNP Paribas where she has been based for the past ten years having started her banking career at Bank of Ireland in London. She holds a Diploma in Corporate Treasury.
Sarah Kong
Sarah is Head of Finance and Business Strategy at CRUX Asset Management and has worked in the asset management industry for 10 years.
She graduated with a First Class BSc (Hons) in Economics from the University of Bristol in 2014 and has been a CFA Charterholder since 2019. She also volunteers for Shelter from the Storm and the Trussell Trust.
Michael St. Aldwyn
Michael worked with the Man Group for 15 years, is a director of the Rank Foundation, a Governor of St. Paul’s School and a Patron of the Seven Springs Foundation.
Jan Pethick
Jan has had many years of experience of financial services including as Chairman of Merrill Lynch International, Debt Capital Markets, Europe and as a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers.
He is currently Chairman of Troy Asset Management.
OUR DUNDEE TRUSTEES
Vivien Buchan
Vivien, who is the chair of our board of trustees, was Finance & Governance Director with Insights until 2018. She is now Director of the Insights Foundation, a charity established to manifest the charitable and social responsibility activities of the Insights Group.
Vivien is passionate about empowering individuals to understand themselves and others better, inspiring them to make a positive difference in everything they do.
Jillian Elizabeth
Jillian started her first business at age 17 and ran it successfully until she was 30 when she decided to have a career change and opened The Little Green Larder - Dundee's first sustainable shop.
Jillian is passionate about young people in business and is keen to empower others to start their dream business.
David Milne
David is a partner at Thorntons Law LLP and is a trustee of several charities focused on youth employment and training.
David is passionate about all things property and has been a board member at a number of Registered Social Landlords.
Amber Wright
Amber has worked for the Launch It Trust for more than 12 years, first as an Enterprise Manager running a Launch It Centre in London.
She is now the Out of London Development Director for the charity.
Simon Rolfe
Simon is the Commercial Development Director at Zudu, an award-winning global digital agency.
Zudu provides profitable development and marketing solutions to clients, and aims to bring the world’s markets closer together by breaking digital boundaries.
OUR PAISLEY TRUSTEES
Leon Breakey
Leon is a Partner at Macroberts LLP. He grew up in Paisley and his parents both owned and operated small businesses locally, so is well placed to understand the pressures facing anyone setting up on their own.
Being a trustee is a new experience for Leon, and he is committed and enthusiastic and feels he can use his professional and personal experience to assist in making a success of Launch It Paisley.
Lorraine Howard
Lorraine was a Founder/Director of NN4M, a Digital Agency which offered digital solutions, predominately in the retail and hospitality arena until its acquisition in 2021 by a global advertising company.
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Previously, Lorraine also had a very successful career in Senior Retail Management, working for large retail organisations.
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Being a trustee is a new area to Lorraine and hopefully will be able to use both professional and personal experience to assist Launch It Paisley and its clients.
Janet Brown
Janet’s experience includes working for for Scottish Enterprise (SE) heading up their activities in technology and innovation, with her last role being Managing Director for Industries. She then became CEO of the Scottish Qualification Agency from 2007 until her recent retirement.
Janet has lived in Paisley for 20 years and will use her experience in business and economic development to help guide the charity.
Pat Shelley
Pat spent 25 years in Local Government working in Portsmouth, Stoke-on-Trent, and London. During this time, he managed a range of services for young people.
In 2016, he moved into the voluntary sector as CEO for Launch It. Pat is passionate with working with and developing opportunities for young people, particularly those who are dealing with social or economic challenges and enjoy seeing the changes Launch It can make to a young person's life.
Alan Ritchie
Alan is the Director of Finance at the West College Scotland, where the role has evolved since he joined Clydebank College in 2004.
He enjoys diversity in his role and is focused on motivating staff and partners to provide the best support possible to students. He plans to bring this approach to Launch It as well as his financial and estate management expertise.
OUR KENT TRUSTEES
Alison Robinson
Alison has been working with Launch It since 2017, responsible for all of the financial management of the charity and also assisting with advice on general business management to the Trust and their young entrepreneurs.
She also currently runs the Money Matters Training for the Trust and provide on-going support to the businesses related to their accounting systems. A Chartered Management Accountant, she has worked in the industry for over 20 years. For the last 15 years, she has been running her own accountancy practice and dealing with many different types of business and assisting many new businesses in their first years.
When not working, she enjoys cooking and traveling as well as spending time with her family of six men (including her husband and the cat!).
Chris Pieroni
Chris was born in Yorkshire, and educated in Wimbledon. After university, he had a career in corporate finance and commercial real estate. He retired in 2021 from a company called Workspace which specialised in providing business accommodation to small businesses from 65 buildings (4 million sq. ft) in London.
Chris got to know Launch It whilst at Workspace as they had one of their own centres in one of the buildings. A few years before retiring, he was involved in helping Launch It explore an opportunity in Sheerness.
Daisy Mills
Daisy is the Head of Business and Enterprise for a non-profit called RIFT Social Enterprise. She has worked within the employability sector for 10 years, starting off as an apprentice for a local Housing Association.
She has lived in Swale since she was 11 years old, following a move from London and currently living on the Isle of Sheppey with her husband and dog, George the Pug.
OUR STOKE-ON-TRENT TRUSTEES
Andrew Heaward
Originally from the South West Andrew has lived in the Staffordshire Moorlands for almost 25 years. Today he is the Founder and Managing Director of successful Blythe Bridge based purpose led, fundraising, strategy and impact consultancy Heaward Solutions.
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He is a graduate of Bradford University having completed his first degree in Community Studies. More recently he completed an MBA (Senior Leadership) at Keele University.
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Andrew worked in the sales and retail sectors before becoming a youth worker and later moving into sport and leisure within the public sector. He has led large teams, managed multi-site operations and been responsible for securing over £38m of grants and other external funding. Andrew is a specialist in fundraising, strategy development, marketing, monitoring and evaluation.
Andrew is a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and also a full member of both the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.
Pat Shelley
Pat spent 25 years in Local Government working in Portsmouth, Stoke-on-Trent, and London. During this time, he managed a range of services for young people.
In 2016, he moved into the voluntary sector as CEO for Launch It. Pat is passionate with working with and developing opportunities for young people, particularly those who are dealing with social or economic challenges and enjoy seeing the changes Launch It can make to a young person's life.
Anya Cummings
The Chair of the Board of Trustees, Anya was born in Stoke-on-Trent, where her parents owned several daytime restaurants, including Calton Coffee House in Longton and Cafe Metz in Hanley.
Growing up in a family business gave her a deep understanding of entrepreneurship and the challenges that come with it.
Throughout her career, she has led teams in digital and marketing across various sectors, from small businesses to large global organisations and PLCs. More recently, she was the Managing Director of a local marketing agency while also pursuing her own ventures in the food and wellbeing sector.
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In 2024, she completed an Msc in Entrepreneurship at the University of Staffordshire.
Supporting local businesses has always been important to her. She has mentored companies in the Stoke area for many years, with a particular focus on female founders. As Chair of Trustees at Launch It, she is committed to helping young entrepreneurs access the guidance, resources, and networks they need to succeed.
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Anya is passionate about making business ownership more accessible and ensuring that aspiring founders—especially those from underrepresented backgrounds—have the right support to thrive.
Alastair Dawes
Alastair was born and raised in Staffordshire. Following a brief period in Bristol, he returned to Staffordshire to pursue an MSc in Computing for Business at Staffordshire University's Stoke-On-Trent campus.
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Alastair is an expert in digital innovation, knowledge exchange, and intellectual property (IP) development. He dedicated 26.5 years to academic and management roles at Staffordshire University, during which he garnered extensive expertise in areas such as innovation strategy, programming, data analysis, mobile product development, SEO, e-marketing, IT and web strategy, and digital product commercialisation. Throughout his career he has used his knowledge and experience to support and mentor start-up companies.
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At the University of Staffordshire Alastair initiated several regional projects aimed at supporting Staffordshire businesses and contributed to regional growth through innovation.
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In 2024, he moved to Harper Adams University, taking on the role of Director of Business Development and Knowledge Exchange.